By James Langton

(April 17 – 09:00 ET) – Markets were slammed in Asia overnight. The massive selloffs continue over into Europe this morning. Yet, U.S. futures are all over the map this morning bouncing up and down. A fierce struggle between the bulls and bears appears set to flare up today.

The Asian markets opened down, sold aggressively, and bounced back a little by the end of the day. The Nikkei finished the day down 1426 points to 19008, a 7% drop. The Hang Seng lost 8.5%, down 1380 points to 14762.

In Europe stocks are falling too, although not as dramatically as they did in Asia. Telecoms and techs are leading the way down. London’s FTSE is off 202 points to 5976. France’s CAC 40 has dropped 131 points to sit at 5934. Germany’s DAX is down 164 points to 7050.

One of the few stocks that is up in Europe is Deutsche Telekom’s internet spinoff, T-Online International AG., although it was priced lower than expected.

The Canadian Consumer Price Index for March was reported this morning. It’s up 0.7% on the headline and 0.4% on the core. On an annual basis, inflation is up 3%. Statistics Canada has reported the Composite Index grew by 1.1% in March, about the same as the 1.0% advance posted in February. The gains reflect the strength of household demand at the start of the new year, as manufacturing and the U.S. leading index slowed, says Statscan.

In other business news, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that merger talks by Seagram Co. Ltd. have stalled. The firm was reportedly talking turkey with several firms, including Vivendi, News Corp Ltd., Walt Disney Co. and Bertelsmann AG. Nortel Networks is reporting a new $220 million supply contract this morning.